News feminist philosophers can use

Statement from CU Women Faculty

All of us in the Philosophy Department at CU-Boulder are naturally upset by the fallout following publication of the Site Visit Report authored by a team from the APA-CSW Site Visit Program. Inevitably, we have different takes on the content of the Report. One reason for the differences among us is that we each have access to different evidence, not only because we have different personal histories in the department but also because much of the evidence on which the Report is based is secret by its nature or confidential by law. Despite differing perceptions regarding both the Report’s details and the overall impression it gives, all of us are united on a few things. First, we are all distressed that the Report may damage the reputations of male colleagues who are completely innocent of sexual misconduct. It could also harm the prospects of our male graduate students currently on the market. We faculty women strongly believe that none of our currently untenured male colleagues or current male graduate students has engaged in sexual misconduct (nor, indeed, have most of our tenured colleagues). We believe that many have heard about the problems, if at all, only through the rumor mill. The second thing that unites us all is our determination to rebuild the department and its reputation. Receiving the Report has been and continues to be very difficult but it has galvanized us into working extremely hard to make our department once again a place where we can be confident about inviting people from all demographic groups to be colleagues, graduate, and undergraduate students.